Win a Paper Money virtual visit. The Paper Money program has hiked revenue for a half-dozen student newspapers through in-depth site visits. Now we’re offering virtual visits for 20 lucky papers. You can win one while on this webinar.
Earn new revenue from old tech. Email newsletters became popular during the shutdown, but they certainly weren’t profitable. If you keep and tweak yours — or start one using the tactics we’ll outline — it can be a steady moneymaker.
Plug the gap with political ads. This fall, you can get a one-time cash injection from both local and national candidates. Depending where you live, the former is easier to land than the latter, but the latter is more profitable than the former.
Don’t leave home without OOH. It stands for “Out of Home,” and it’s the fastest-growing advertising category — and possibly the future of campus revenue. Think ads on news racks, posters on bulletin boards, and signs inside buses.
Solicit a steady stream of direct donations. Done right and carefully, you can bring in enough to cover some major expenses. A few student media outlets have figured out how to make it work. Hint: It takes more thinking than doing.
Recruit next-gen sales reps now. Don’t wait until fall to rebuild your sales staff. It may seem silly to recruit right now, but just like selling, it’s a numbers game. Besides, you might find only one or two new recruits, but they can end up being your rockstars.
Paul Bittick and Michael Koretzky, SPJ’s Paper Money program. Before the Society of Professional Journalists sent him to student ad shops around the country, Bittick was GM for student media at Cal Poly — where he consistently made money. Koretzky is an SPJ regional coordinator who directs the Paper Money program.
Alex Kronman and Piper Jackson-Sevy, Flytedesk CEO and vice president. Flytedesk builds cutting-edge tools for college media that allow ad buyers to easily place orders — and they also recruit those buyers for you, whether it’s print or online ads, or fliers and posters. Kronman worked in student media before launching Flytedesk four years ago.
Tami Bongiorni and Charlie Weaver, CMBAM president and president-elect. Bongiorni and Weaver lead College Media Business and Advertising Managers, the only organization focused solely on student media revenue. CMBAM offers both in-person and virtual training.